Category: Diocesan News

In the Japanese Shinto religious tradition, if an earthenware pot used for religious observance is broken, that pot must be restored. The pieces are taken and put back together, but into the adhesive is introduced an amount of gold to give it strength. The cracks and the brokenness can be seen; they remain, but the pot is more valuable, is stronger, because holding it together is a golden thread.
This Easter we celebrate the golden thread of God’s love which shines through the brokenness of our lives and our world in Hope. The golden thread of God’s love which binds us together to strengthen us in the face of fear and allows to know the real Joy of resurrection life which Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us, and the Holy Spirit allows us to share.
The golden thread of God’s love that we see shine in Hope is the sure Hope that comes from the knowledge that the sun rises, whether we are always able to recognise that fact or not. At the heart of the resurrection narratives is the fact that Love is stronger than any natural phenomenon we experience, even death itself. The Hebrew concept of Remembrance makes real in this present moment Exodus, Passover that is the concept of Remembrance Jesus used at the last supper. More than memory, but memory teaches much about the nature of God’s love when we simply remember those we have known who have died. It is love which lifts the veil between heaven and earth, the golden thread of Hope holds our heaven and earth in the reality of that love, that speaks to us of God.
There is no room for fear in love: we hear that every Sunday. Fear is the most lethal weapon in the world and in our lives. It is lethal because it encourages those facets of our lives that we would rather be without, the questions, the doubts around who I am and why am I the way I am. Why do others seem to have more than me without working for it; why are others stronger, more self-assured, more assertive? The golden thread of God’s love runs through that brokenness and reminds us that we are made in God’s image to share God’s love. The importance of the cross and of the tomb is that Our Lord Jesus Christ proved that despite failure, disappointment, indeed death itself – we are good enough. Good enough to share God’s love; there is no room for fear in that love. In apparent weakness there is strength: I remember saying at the beginning of the pandemic that we closed our church doors not in fear but in LOVE.
That is the true Joy of Love which brings peace, makes resurrection real. Joy is not the absence of pain or suffering, the absence of doubt and confusion. The joy in love is the recognition that Our Lord Jesus Christ in his suffering and death gives us confidence that, made in God’s image, we are good enough. God who is love makes something of our pain and guilt and fear and doubt. That is the true joy of love that is of God: it gives us confidence to look for and recognise Hope, the Hope that the sun rises, the Hope that in the cross we may recognise even excellence is not enough, but failure can be redeemed.

• Kevin, Glasgow and Galloway

Programme
10.00am Worship
10.20am Jesus condemned – Bishop Kevin
10.40am The women by the way
11.00am Break
11.30am Jesus falls; Simon carries the cross
11.50am Crucifixion – Dean Reuben
12.10am The silence of the tomb – Bishop Kevin
12.30pm Final worship
If you would like to find out more about the Lent Quiet Day or would like to book a
place, please contact the Rev Les Ireland on 0141 776 3866, or email
Les949@btinternet.com. Access details for the Zoom meeting will be circulated
nearer the time.

Everyone is welcome and invited to this free event.

A meditation from Bishop Kevin, on the recent Blessing of the Crib in George Square, Glasgow.
Emmanuel, God is with us.
St Francis of Assisi in 1233 created a Christmas Crib in the town of Greccio. He wanted people to be able to appreciate the depths of God’s love for them, by being able to see the primitive conditions in which the Son of God was pleased to be born. And so, the figures of Mary and Joseph and the animals and the manger were arranged and, after Midnight Mass, the 'bambino', the figure of the baby Jesus, was placed in the manger. The name given by the angels to Jesus at his birth was Emmanuel, meaning God is with us.
Elspeth and I have a crib set at home which we bought the very first Christmas we were married. It is the centre of our Christmas decorations, as the crib is the centre of decorations in George Square and our churches.
As you look at a crib this year, at home, in church, or in George Square, remember that in the Orthodox churches, personal devotions at the crib are very much a part of the Christmas celebrations. Cribs are visited to focus our prayers but not to bribe God to give us what we want; pray not to try and bribe God but because somehow, mysteriously, God is with us, alongside us, and when we pray for others, we bring them with us to visit our Lord. 
As you look at the crib ask yourself the question, what would you take to the crib? Sorrow, anguish, disappointment, joy, the wonder of life’s good things?
As you look at the crib…
Look and see:
Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, born like any human baby with infinite potential to Love and in Love to prove God is Love, and God is with us.
As you look at the crib…
Look and see:
A young, unmarried couple living on benefits in poverty with a newborn baby. Still the baby with infinite potential to Love and to prove in Love, God is with us.
Look and see:
The poor, the refugees, asylum seekers that Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus were, when they left the stable to seek exile in Egypt. Through the desert that COP26 warned us will change and expand, but still the human baby will have infinite potential to Love and in Love to prove God is with us.
Look and see:
In George Square, a baby with infinite potential to Love – look at a baby and see God.
Prayer for use at the Crib
O God the Son, highest and holiest,
Who humbled yourself to share our birth and our death:
Bring us with the shepherds and the wise men
To kneel before your holy cradle,
That we may come to sing with your angels
Your glorious praises in heaven.
Where, with the Father and the Holy Spirit
You live and reign, God, world without end.
Amen.
My prayer for you
May the humility of the shepherds,
The perseverance of the wise men, the joy of the angels,
And the peace of the Christ Child,
Be God’s gift to you and your families,
This Christmas time, and always.
God bless you all.
+ Kevin, Glasgow and Galloway

The official diocesan announcement can be found here.

The bell tolls
marking more than a death,
a life of faith well lived.
The sombre timbre
resonates our grief,
recalls voice and gentle smile,
word of encouragement, blessing, prayer.
Hands that laid on others
passing on The Great Commission,
anointing, blessing, serving_
God and God in all;
have found their rest.
Within its peal
a brighter resonance marks
a uniting one final time.
Hope realised,
faith completed,
the final communion 
of body, blood and spirit;
united to the great I AM,
who is all in all,
in life and death.

Bishop Kevin is delighted to announce the appointment of the Rev Kirstin Freeman as the Makar of the United Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. The term makar, borrowed from Scottish literature, relates to a poet or bard, coming from the Middle Scots word for maker.

In this inaugural honorary post, spanning an initial term of four years, Kirstin will mark events in the life and witness of our Diocese by the creation of bespoke pieces of art that will encourage our congregations, communities, and individuals to interact with new directions of creativity and mission throughout the Diocese and further afield.

Kirstin’s visceral poetry and thought-provoking artworks have long been enjoyed by friends and colleagues and have made multiple appearances in our diocesan communications. Bishop Kevin views this appointment as a unique opportunity to crystalise creative forces in the Diocese and help shape new liturgy, prayers, art and resources, as well as a chance to offer a different angle for people to journey with their faith and engage with the issues of the day.

Kirstin’s most recent poem, inspired by the recent clergy pilgrimage in Galloway, is available to view on the Diocesan Facebook page Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway – Home | Facebook